[ Fluhmann / Second in Command ]
While not an early historical account of Newfoundlands, this biography of Capt. Francis Crozier, the second in command of the ill-fated Franklin expedition of 1845, reports that the expedition, which consisted of two ships and 129 crewmembers, also included two dogs, one of which was a Newfoundland.
The amusements [provided for the sailors] even included pets. Lady Franklin [wife of the expedition leader Sir John Franklin] had given the men a monkey and a Newfoundland dog called "Jacko." The monkey turned out to be quite a nuisance and a thief, but was so cute in her ways that the men were more amused than annoyed and forgave her her robberies. One of the doctors claimed "Jacko" had rapid consumption because of a nasty cough but Lieutenant Fairholme insisted the only "consumption" the dog suffered from was consumption of too much food. They also had another dog which they called "old Neptune" and a cat. (101)
Fluhman has an endnote to the passage just above:
Letters of James Walter Fairholme, to his father. Fairholme is not specific as to whether "Jacko" is the monkey or the Newfoundland dog. If the former, he refers to it as "he" when it should be "she." If the latter, then it means that the dog arrived at the ships on time after all. Public Archives of Canada.
Fluhman does not explain the comment about the dog arriving on time.
There was also a Newf on an earlier expedition in which Crozier took part, the William Parry expedition of 1821 - 1823 to find the Northwest passage:
"In February [1822, as the ships were wintering] visitors started coming. A band of Eskimos appeared at a distance bringing blades of whalebone for barter. The expedition had a large Newfoundland dog which had been trained to do tricks and the Eskimo children were astounded at that." (17 -18)
Parry reports this episode in his own account of that expedition, Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, discussed here at The Cultured Newf.